Jakarta – The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) watchdog urged the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to expedite its execution of court rulings on 49 graft suspects who remain at large.

Data from the ICW showed that as of March 2012, of the convicts who remained free, 25 individuals were suspected of having fled. The antigraft organization attributed the problem to procedural loopholes at both the Supreme Court and the AGO.

The Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP), for example, clearly stipulates that prosecutors can only implement sentences by showing official copies of the verdicts to the convicts.

There have been occasions when convicts and prosecutor's offices colluded to arrange a delay in the delivery of copies of the verdicts. Graft convicts also at times have made efforts to slow down the execution by bribing court clerks not to deliver copies of their verdicts to the AGO.

Activist from the ICW, Emerson Yuntho, said that the AGO should at least detain graft convicts before receiving a court order for execution of sentences.

"The AGO should immediately detain the convicts. If they delay the execution of the ruling, it is possible for the convict to run away making it more difficult for the AGO to bring them to jail," Emerson said.

The ICW also reminded the AGO to abide by the Presidential Instruction No. 9/2011 about corruption eradication, which demands law enforcement agencies expedite the prosecution of graft convicts.

One of the graft convicts who remains at large is the suspended Bengkulu Governor Agusrin Maryono Najamuddin.

In May 2011, the Central Jakarta District Court acquitted Agusrin of embezzlement charges, a ruling which was overturned in January this year by the Supreme Court, which sentenced him to four years in prison.

The AGO was yet to execute the sentence when on Tuesday he turned up at the Central Jakarta District Court to have his case review heard by the judges.

He was seen having lunch at the court's cafeteria with his lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra after his court session wrapped up.

When asked about when he would accept the Supreme Court ruling, Agusrin said that he would turn himself in at the Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta. "I will go to the Cipinang Penitentiary all by myself, as soon as I have completed my paperwork with the court," he said.

AGO spokesman Adi Toegarisman could not be reached for comment. (fzm/asa)